One obsessive Canadian's review of everything going on in Lucha Libre.

Friday, December 31, 2010

AAA/CMLL Late Feb. '10!

AAA 2/27/10 in Cuernavaca:

Awesome opener! The likes of which are rarely seen in AAA these days and one of the rare times these mixed matches actually works to perfection. The work between Aero Star/Ultimo Gladiador was off the charts! Gladiador took a monkey flip to the floor and later in the match took a springboard rana to the floor from Octagoncito and flew into the second row upside down! Clearly he's been watching his Oficiales in IWRG DVD's! Some great dives at the end and a fun finishing sequence involving a title belt being used.

Another excellent match! Why oh why can't AAA always be like this? Lasser Boy and Atomic Boy looked like a million bucks thanks to the great work of the rudo team. So many awesome spots it'd be hard to go over them all and in the end of the show video package they showed two neat spots that were edited out. Rudos won after Decnis used his crazy submission turned into a backbreaker! He really needs to use that more instead of his lame Gory Special kneebreaker finisher.

Tercera was the infamous match where La Secta kinapped Jack Evans. But before that nonsense took place the match was actually passable with all three tecnicos looking good and the rudos being excellent bases.

Combined time of first three matches: 19 minutes. Absolutely shameful.

Semi-main wasn't too bad either. My only question is why did Latin Lover straighten his hair? Somehow that made him look more girly than usual. Tiger and Corleone were really good here and the rudos were bumping like mad for them. 4 for 4 in terms of good matches on the show.

And the of course there was the usual AAA main event. Extremely dull even with Chessman involved. Ruined a chance for a 5 for 5 show which might have not been done in AAA in years.

CMLL TV 2/20/10:

Not gonna do this show match for match... just trust me when I say - YOU WANT THIS SHOW! Easily the best CMLL show of the year with fantastic wrestling and great angles. Sombra vs Felino was off the charts and included a great pre-match angle followed by great post-match angle. Semi-main had the hottest team act in CMLL with Maximo/Niebla and main event was another Mistico/Volador confrontation with a pre-match angle that is to die for! Crowd was red hot and the combining of multiple feuds was just genius. This is how CMLL needs to be every week! ***** show!

CMLL TV 2/27/10:

Opener was the funniest match I've seen in a long time. It's crazy how over Maximo/Niebla were together and the huge pop Monito got for turning on Shocker and joining the Peste Del Amor. Any other promotion would have ran with the angle and made money. CMLL just scrapped it. Absolutely pathetic booking. But ignore than and check this match out. Everyone played their role to perfection including Toscano!

Semi-main was decent enough as Terrible/Texano always step up their game when working against the Japanese guys. Crowd was hot for the Guerrero/Mendoza confrontations so it's nice to see they remember that horrible mask match. Guerrero used the ropes to pin Mendoza in the third fall.

My only complaint about the main event was the editing. It was all focused on Mistico/Volador which is understandable but there's no excuse for taking out everyone else's spots in the third fall. You wouldn't have even known Dorada was still in the match if he hadn't jumped into the ring to celebrate the finish. Otherwise the match was fantastic and crowd was the loudest I've heard a CMLL crowd in ages. The mask ripping stuff got a huge reaction. The finish with Sombra yanking Mistico's mask so Volador could pin him also got a nuclear reaction! More awesome stuff from CMLL!

CMLL Arena Puebla 2/15/10:

Locals tag opener was really fun. Lestat continues to impress. They did a bunch of nearfalls including a great double pin spot. Tecs won clean with a flying senton/Senton Bomb at the same time. Maybe Lestat's next trick is to get arrested for drug trafficking?

Next was the first in a run of mini's matches in this arena as they headed towards the Bam Bam/Pequeno Violencia hair match. Good start to the feud although really the only hint of it was at the finish where Violencia low blowed Bam Bam and got the win. But the match itself was pretty good. I guess they have a new comedy spot where Damian's partner whiff on dropkicks as he does the Giant Swing. I don't get it since they just look stupid doing it.

On any other night the tercera would have been match of the night but not tonight. Raziel/Cancerbero looked really good against Stuka and Fuego and it makes me sad we'll never see a straight tag match between the two teams. It's amazing I can even say that with the amount of shows CMLL runs but that's life. Lots of interesting submissions used here including the finishing spot where Stuka/Fuego stood on Cancerbero/Raziel's knees and pulled their arms in a wacky spot I haven't seen since late 2008.

Semi-main was match of the night. Another one of those Blue Panther influenced matches where they stray from the formula and work extra hard. The Panther/Vangelis matwork early on was okay and Vangelis deserves credit for hanging in with Panther. Valiente looked fantastic the entire match except for one messed up spot near the end where he fell off Misterioso's shoulders trying a rana. I liked the triple sunset flip nearfall they did in the third fall b/c it was setup a way I hadn't seen before. Valiente did his Valiente Especial which got a huge pop and tecs took the match.

Main was the usual. Mistico kept teasing listening to the porra tecnico only to go back to cheering with the porra rudo. Eventually Porky and Strongman had to hold him back from running over to the rudo side. Finish was actually well done as Strongman had Ultimo trapped in the corner but Rafa El Maya was stuck behind them. Strongman went to chop Ultimo who moved and Maya got nailed. Guerrero then threw his mask to Strongman who had the funniest reaction ever and rudos won by DQ.

Fun show!

CMLL Puebla 2/22/10:

Didn't enjoy the locals opener. Nobody seemed really motivated and the tecnicos are pretty bland in general. Just a bad way to start a show.

Bam Bam/Violencia feud continued in the segunda and I gotta give major bonus points to Violencia for noticing the hot chicks in the front row and thus doing alot of spots where he'd bump into them or the action would be focused on their section. Ingenius! Match was mostly rudos in control outside of a short run in the third fall where Astral/Electrico got to show their stuff off. Anticlimactic finish with Violencia pinning Bam Bam while holding the ropes but the camera angle was awful. Hair match challenges afterwards.

Tercera was a complete mess. Rudos dominated early on and then during the comeback spot Angel De Plata botched a springboard rana and landed on his head. He seemed fine but Virus got angry and seemed to improvise a quick finish and thus didn't allow the tecnicos to win a fall. He called Euforia back into the ring and they sloppily put away the tecnicos.

Semi-main was mainly comedy due to Porky but I was laughing throughout so I give it a thumbs up. Dorada looked absolutely fantastic the couple of times he got into the ring and the announcers marked out huge when he walked the ropes during his entrance. Tecs won clean. Hot girls were disgusted by Porky.

Second week in a row with a below average main event. More Strongman/Ultimo feuding which isn't the most intriguing feud one can put together. This time Ultimo low blowed Strongman for the win... until the refs reversed the decision and DQ'ed him.

PDM 2/20/10 in Ecatepec:

Dinastia vs Talisman was bad. Airing these matches just makes the Perros Del Mal promotion look so minor league. I also found it funny how Talisman works with the mini's but he was way bigger than Dinastia who works with the regular sized guys. Lots of blown spots here which is no surprise since DTU guys can't work with anyone except their buddies since they can sit in their backyards planning every move from the openign whistle until the final three count. Talisman looked quite frustrated at various points. At least he got the win.

Cosmico/Konami vs Black Fire/Mr. Aguilita can be summarized by reading what I wrote about the previous match. I was especially unimpressed with Cosmico here though as you would think he'd use this opportunity to show off against Mr. Aguilita but he did no such thing. He's very Mini Fantasy-ish as he has his generic spots and doesn't want to stray from them. Meanwhile the DTU guys wanted to try new stuff but just weren't capable of pulling it off. Bad match. More minor league stuff from a promotion that can't afford to look minor league.

Turbo vs Black Thunder - the rematch! Sadly not as good as the first match. I'd only reccomend it to fans of these two. They did a lot of smart countering of their usual moves so if you don't know what their usual moves are you will probably be lost and not enjoy the match as much as I did. The live crowd wasn't too into it b/c they were loooooooooooooooooooooooooooong and it was the type of match this crowd didn't need to see in the spot that it was put in. Had it been the opener they may have enjoyed it more but after two straight matches with DTU guys involved - you can't follow with this. The crowd was actually whistling during the entire last 4/5 minutes which killed the great nearfalls the two were pulling off. Thunder got the win with his brutal Thunder Driver.

Lizmark Jr./Oriental/Celestial vs Histeria/Pesadilla/Ragde was once again VERY amateurish... mainly from Pesadilla who looked completely lost. Ragde I will give credit too since he fit right in and worked well with Oriental. Nothing to the match though outside of an SSP to the floor by Celestial. This is what qualifies as a third from the top on a PDM show? I wonder why the promotion failed?

Charly Manson vs X-Fly for the Mexican National Heavyweight Title was actually really good! I liked the early matwork and the slow start. X-Fly was X-tra motivated and busted out an asai moonsault dive in the second fall! Third fall had some more good work and nice nearfalls. Of course since this is the Perros Del Mal you had to expect the finish... Tirantes costing Manson the match. Ruined a perfectly good match but what can you do? Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat past mistakes.

Blue Demon Jr./L.A. Park/Super Crazy vs Perro Jr./Mr. Aguila/Halloween was the definition of a PDM main event. Brawling. Brawling. Brawling. Mask ripping. More brawling. Perrito comedy. More brawling. Crazy/Aguila couldn't even get motivated enough to toss in a single good exchange with two guys who used to enjoy working with each other. If I was in attendance live it's possible I would have enjoyed this but that's the problem... it's a match for a live audience. Why would you work that style knowing you are taping a TV show that you are hoping will take off? These matches don't work on TV. AAA proves that almost every week now that they use this same group of wrestlers.